Diesel sport utility vehicles with hybrid electric drive trains

This paper presents the concept of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) applied to sport utility vehicles (SUVs) with diesel engines. Two SUVs currently available in the U.S. market have been selected as the representative vehicles used in this study, which consists of the modeling and simulation of the vehicles as close as possible to the manufacturer´s specifications and then running the models through the Advance Vehicle Simulator (ADVISOR). Effects of hybridization on the fuel economy and dynamic performances of the two representative SUVs are investigated. Different hybridization levels from mild to full hybrid electric drive trains are studied through comprehensive simulations.